Bridge program cuts identified

ºProposal would cut a combined $1.4 million.

March 26, 2011|ERIN BLASKO | Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- Funding for a handful of bridge projects in the county would be eliminated or reduced under a proposal to cut a combined $1.4 million from the major cumulative and cumulative bridge funds.

Introduced by county Engineer Jessica Clark in response to state-mandated budget reductions, the proposal would affect three major bridge projects and slash the small bridge maintenance fund budget by 70 percent.

Specifically, it would:

[square]ºEliminate funding for the planned replacement of Beech Road over Grimes Ditch ($375,000)

[square]ºEliminate funding for engineering services related to the planned rehabilitation of Cleveland Road over the St. Joseph River ($424,655)

[square]ºReduce funding for the rehabilitation of the Ironwood Drive bridge over the St. Joseph River ($255,945)

[square]ºReduce funding for the rehabilitation of the Twyckenham Drive bridge over the St. Joseph River ($13,000)

[square]ºReduce the administration budget ($6,400)

[square]ºReduce the small bridge maintenance budget ($325,000)

In regard to the Ironwood Drive bridge, the county would need to find a replacement source of funding to complete the project, Clark said, which has been ongoing now since May of last year.

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"We will not scale the work back," she said. "We will be talking to the commissioners to try to identify a separate funding source for that."

One possibility, she said, would be to transfer the money budgeted to complete repairs to the Olive Street bridge ($225,000) to the Ironwood project, keeping in mind the impact that would have on the Olive project.

As for the Twyckenham bridge, the proposed reduction represents the cost to perform construction inspection services, Clark said, which is subject to reimbursement under a construction services agreement between the county and federal government.

Of the other two major bridge projects -- Beech Road over Grimes Ditch and Cleveland Road -- Beech would absolutely be delayed under the proposal, she said, and Cleveland, which is not set to begin until 2015, would potentially be delayed.

The proposed reduction to the small bridge maintenance budget, meanwhile, would reduce the number of bridges included in the five-year maintenance program for such structures from 26 to 12, Clark said, and funding for emergency repairs to zero.

"It's a significant impact," she said, "because those moneys are used for 153 structures in the community ... and it also provides funding for our bridge inspection program, which is federally required."

Citing insufficient projected revenue, the state Department of Local Government Finance reduced the county's major cumulative and cumulative bridge funds by a combined $1.4 million in February.

If the reductions continue next year, Clark said, the county could increase the levies associated with the two funds or supplement them with Economic Development Income Tax or, possibly, Cumulative Capital Development money.

A public hearing and possible vote on the bridge funds proposals is set to take place at the next County Council meeting April 12.